Hi all. I posted this in wrong section, so I am reposting here.
Last March my son was diagnosed with ITP. He was two and a half at the time.
He had bruises and petechiae and his count was 1,000. IVIG was administered. The specialists all said it would go away. It hasn't. The first couple months we would treat whenever he dropped below ten. Alternating steroids and IVIG. The treatments never kept his number above 20K for more than a week or two. Then he stopped responding to steroids. Without IVIG his number hovered around 20K-30K, then we had to move to Canada, that was a year ago... since we have been in Canada his number has been between 5K-10K never going above that. We would always treat when we would see doctor, but the IVIG side effects got worse and worse for him and the numbers would only go up for a few days. We stopped treating. He doesn't get blood blisters in his mouth, nor nose bleeds, nor body aches. But he always has bruising and petechiae. This week his bruises seem to be a tad bit fainter, and though the ones he has are fading slowly, the petechiae is not as severe as usual. I can't get my hopes up, I think it is probably just best to begin the process of acceptance that my son will have this condition for life. I can't seem to find any testimonials here of children who have had it for this long and gone into remission. My son is happy, he doesn't complain of aches and he says his bruises don't hurt. I feel like a bad father sometimes; not pumping him full of experimental drugs, but I am too afraid that the cure will be worse than the disease. I know his count is below 5 right now and it has been for some time, my wife and I live on eggshells worried about every corner he could bump into, every step he could slip on. I really wish some miracle would just make this go away. I know I am rambling, but it has been such a long 18 months, if anyone here has had any similar experience to ours, I would love to talk with you.
Thanks for reading,
Dan